International Top of the Chart - Wanted is Desired

July 2, 2008

Wanted started its international run in first place with $32.25 million on 2132 screens in 22 markets. The film's best market was Russia, but that's no surprise as the film was directed by Timur Bekmambetov, who was born in the Soviet Union. In that one market the film made $10.70 million on 859 screens, which was the second best opening of the year and seven times more than its nearest competition. (The best opening of the year was by The Very Best Film, which is a local film that broke the record back in January.) Other major markets for Wanted include South Korea where it made $5.36 million on 629 screens over the weekend and $6.81 million in total, which was enough for first place. On the other hand, it had to settle for a close second in the U.K. with $6.35 million on 412 screens.

Kung Fu Panda climbed into second place with $23.89 million on 3057 screens in 23 markets and now has $101.76 million international. This is even more impressive when you realize that the film has yet to open in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, and it open opened in London over the weekend and won't expand into the rest of the U.K. till this coming weekend. This past weekend it opened in first place in Australia with $5.05 million on 362 screens over the weekend and now has $6.94 million including previews. Meanwhile it remained in first place in China with an estimated $9 million, but that was for the full week. Other holdovers include Mexico where it repeated on top of the charts with $3.84 million on 425 screens over the weekend for a total of $13.17 million, while it slipped to third place in South Korea with $2.57 million on 523 screens over the weekend for a total of $24.36 million.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opened in the U.K. and France over the weekend, however, while the film topped the charts in both markets, it wasn't as strong as many were expecting. For instance, the film earned $8.09 million on 546 screens in the U.K., which is not that much higher than The Incredible Hulk made a couple weeks ago, and is less than half of what Sex and the City opened with and a third of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's debut. Meanwhile in France the film made $6.85 million on 768 screens, which was half of what Crystal Skull opened with and a little below Iron Man's opening. Also, in both markets the film was about 40% lower than the opening of its predecessor. Overall it made $20.12 millio non 4693 screens in 34 markets for a total of $161.60 million internationally, which gives it just under $300 million worldwide on a production budget of $200 million. Given Prince Caspian's struggles, it is a little surprising that they appear to be going forward on plans to expand the franchise beyond a trilogy with The Silver Chair and A Horse and His Boy being discussed.

That's it for the films that made significant moves this past weekend. We will have information on the rest of the million dollar movies on Sunday.


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Filed under: International Box Office, Kung Fu Panda, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Wanted